Big Gadget Show Expecting a Blowout

Good times and bad, Consumer Electronics Show honcho Gary Shapiro usually sounds upbeat as the big trade event in Las Vegas approaches. But this year he’s not dismissing the possibility of setting an all-time attendance record, despite factors that include Microsoft’s decision to make this its CES swan song.

“Our pre-registrations are off the charts,” says Shapiro, the chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Association.

Consumer Electronics Association

Gary Shapiro signs copies of his book about U.S. competitiveness

Last year, the organization’s official attendance prediction going into the show was 120,000. When the audited figures came out in the spring, it turned out nearly 150,000 people attended.

Shapiro says he would be “shocked” if attendance doesn’t top that figure. The all-time record for CES was 152,203 people, reached in 2006, before the 2008-2009 economic slump sapped travel budgets. The company could also top the record for exhibit space used at the show, which stands at 1.85 million square feet, he says.

There are several unusual factors this year, Shapiro says. CES, which opens formally Monday night with Microsoft’s keynote and runs through Friday, falls later after the Christmas holidays then usual. The show also does not extend into a weekend, as it often has in the past, which makes it easier for attendees to find hotel rooms, he says. On a less positive note, he adds, CES this year does not coincide with an adult entertainment convention, which may have been a draw for some attendees.

Another less-than-sexy development was the announcement by Microsoft in December that it will end its long reign as host of the opening keynote after this year, a tradition started by co-founder Bill Gates and carried on recently by Steve Ballmer. The company, among other things, cited the difficulty of lining up its product developments with show dates.

Microsoft also said it will stop exhibiting at the show after this year, at least for now.

Shapiro concedes that he underestimated how much reaction Microsoft’s announcement would generate, perhaps because the company was not among the five largest exhibitors at the show. “We agreed that it didn’t make sense” for Microsoft to continue, he says. “By mutual agreement it was time to move on.”

Such keynotes are costly to put on, both for the CEA as well as for whatever company decides to host them. But Shapiro says he is not worried about finding a comparable draw to Microsoft for a kick-off speech.

“There is no shortage of companies that frankly beg us to keynote,” Shapiro says. The opening speech is “considered the most high-profile keynote in the world.”

Another reason Shapiro says he is optimistic is all the new categories of exhibitors at this year’s show, including many more car makers, technology startups and makers of apps and accessories for products made by Apple (which does not participate itself at CES).

Shapiro dismisses complaints about the rising prices of hotel rooms in Las Vegas as CES approaches, noting that people who booked earlier got decent rates. “It’s a sign that the show is extremely hot,” he says.